We are very sorry to report that our friend and club blogger Alan “Des” Desborough has died following a short illness. We’ll have a think about what to do with the blog in due course.

By request from Des here’s a video of the mighty Martin Simpson performing “Never any good with money” on the BBC’s “Later With Jooles Holland”.

On the eve of Billy Bragg’s 50^th birthday we had an In Conversation with Jude Kelly, the Artistic Director of the South Bank Centre. It was half a conversation because it was only about his music and not about his politics. It’s a bit like talking to Mrs Thatcher about chemistry.

Don’t get me wrong, it was very interesting. Billy was there with his vinyl records playing what influenced him and it was nice and cosy. A bit of Bob Dylan, Julie Sarstedt, The Clash, The Watersons and he sung a few songs intermittently and referring to his Woody Guthrie project. He ended with a couple of good songs that we all love him for: Levi Stubbs’ Tears and Power In The Union. It was all very nice but I wanted to hear more about his politics and more about his recent work in the folk circle and I never heard that. Perhaps he wanted to behave himself because he’s old mother was in the audience.

Let’s have the other half of the conversation – not at the Queen Elizabeth Hall but at a radical venue like the Conway Hall, and let’s have Tony Benn as the interviewer, and perhaps leave his mother behind so he can be himself. It was too nice and I feel Billy Bragg is an angry man, so he didn’t reflect his character. There were too many gaps.

Mike was absolutely right, Martin did write a couple on ‘righteousness and humidity’ but they are not in the same league as ‘Never Any Good’.

I hope your all ready to go to the union chapel on 13th nov to worship GOD !

Mawkin:CausleyThese days you train to go into the folk business just like any other profession . You go to university -in this case Newcastle for their course in folk music . Then you do your apprentice with Waterson:Carthy , and then you find yourself a great band to sing with .

Jim Causley ,the rising star of the folk world teams up with local band ‘Mawkin’ and did a fine debut. It was a rare treat to be entertained by such young ,fine, musicians. They did pieces on their own as well with the whole band, they did favourites, such as ‘Bold Doherty’ as well a popular ‘Faces’ number, their going to go a long way, and not just in the dance tent .

‘Warhorse’ The National Theatre I don’t normally go to the theatre but when the song maker is John Tams and the song man is Tim Van Eykan I had to go. A very fine Children’s play about a horse going off to the first world war and into battle, even behind the enemy lines.

It was great to hear one of my favourite songwriters Mr Tams lyrics being performed intermittently through out the wonderful play. The horses where huge and Van Eyken’s melodic voice was singing songs through out as this young soldier looked for his bleedin horse in the trenches! it was great.

Yes Des went to the theatre , I even put my best trousers on !!

Hello. I’m delighted that my favorite folk club has asked me to write this page of gossip and reviews from the folk world as everyone knows if there is one person who knows all the gossip its me.So there will be gossip and reviews galore. An excellent set by the Damien Barbers Road Show the other week. Its very rare that we see an excellent folk rock band these days and I hope we can all tell our friends so that Russ can put on more big bands.

People who go to Sidmouth every year may have noticed this year the lunch time traditional sessions at the Volunteer Inn were relegated to the Fringe- it wasn’t in the daily program and the bar was half empty. Don’t worry I have been on the a case and it was just a real cock up by the person doing the program who forgot to list it in the daily program. Many of us were very annoyed because we love this event because we can go to gigs any time but we cant enjoy the atmosphere of the Volunteer. You can always hear great stories,

songs about Lancashire and if your lucky occasionally you will hear Kevin or Chris, oh what a bore. So I will make sure that the Volunteer gets in to the right slot in the program next year.

Martin Simpson- Prodigal Son.

Somebody once said to me that Martin Simpson gets better every time and that was 27 years ago. About 16 C.Ds and hundreds of gigs later he is still getting better. His latest C.D. is a triumph and was even in the independent charts. The only bad review he had was in the daily express and that can’t be bad either. I would worry if he got a good review in the Daily Express

Little Musgrave is an excellent traditional song about lust of the gentry. A wonderful tale about Lady Bernard inviting Musgrave to bed with her while her husband is away. However her trusty page boy realises he can earn a pot of gold if he goes to tell his master. Lord Bernard returns and catches little Musgrave in bed with his wife keeping her back warm and it all ends with Lord Barnard killing both Musgrove and his wife. A wonderful tail And Martin Simpson knows how to deliver it .

Never Any Good. To my knowledge it is the first song he as written. Excellently crafted about the life of his father who was no good with money. He must be in for the track of the year at the BBC folk awards with this one. A story well crafted, very much like One in a Million which won the award two years ago, only this story is true. I do hope that Martin writes more songs like this.

Louisiana 1927 is a nice bluesy number about the first New Orleans disaster shows just how he can sing the blues as well doing traditional folk songs. And the C.D. ends with a lovely rendition of When A Knight Won His Spurs with out mentioning a fellow called God. He doesn’t have to, because Martin is god to many people. In another twenty seven years time where will I put all his C.D.